Finland Stops Russia With Another Shutout

TURIN, Italy, Feb. 24 - Teemu Selanne was chewing a huge wad of gum as he answered questions about Finland's 4-0 upset of Russia on Friday night at the Palasport Olimpico. This was no small feat. Selanne lost three front teeth Wednesday, when he was struck in the mouth by a stick during Finland's 4-3 victory over the United States.

Selanne flashed a jack-o'-lantern grin when the Russian reserve goalie Ilya Bryzgalov, who is one of his teammates on the Anaheim Mighty Ducks, whispered something in his ear and gave him a bear hug.

"He's a nice guy," Bryzgalov said as he doubled back toward the exit. "He didn't win a Stanley Cup, he's having a good year, he's a great player. I hope he wins something."

On Sunday, the 35-year-old Selanne and the rest of Team Finland will play for a gold medal against their biggest rival, Sweden. Selanne is one of the best -- and probably one of the most beloved -- players in the game who has not won a major team championship.

"I'm even too scared to talk about it," he said. "Obviously it's no secret that would be my dream."

Selanne has never appeared on so grand a stage, but Sunday's game will feel eerily familiar. "Playing outdoors with my buddies," Selanne said, "we met once, Finland and Sweden. We were dreaming about playing against Sweden in an Olympic final."

In that childhood game, Selanne's twin, Paavo, played goalie. "He wasn't very good," Selanne said, laughing, "but we still won."

This time, Selanne's team will have a great goaltender, Antero Niittymaki. He stopped 21 shots Friday for his third shutout of these Games and Finland's fifth in seven games.

Finland received all the scoring it needed 6 minutes 13 seconds into the first period, when Ville Peltonen redirected a shot by Kimmo Timonen past Evgeni Nabokov on a power play. Selanne and Peltonen had converged on the puck from opposite sides of the slot and each took a swat at it.

"I hit a stick or a puck but it's all the same," Selanne said. "It doesn't really matter."

How could he mind that Peltonen, a 32-year-old forward, was the one who got to the puck first? It was Peltonen's stick, after all, that lifted the Finns to their only major international title. At the 1995 world championship in Stockholm -- which Selanne missed because a lockout caused the N.H.L. season to run long -- Peltonen scored three goals in a 4-1 victory over Sweden in the final.

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The result sent revelers racing into the streets of Helsinki. "I was watching on TV," said Niittymaki, who was 15. "You hope that someday you're there."

This was not supposed to be Niittymaki's star turn. He won the leading role after the two goaltenders ahead of him, Mikka Kiprusoff and Kari Lehtonen, were sidelined by injuries that kept them out of the Olympics.

Niittymaki's voice was hoarse when he spoke with reporters. He lost it two days ago, he said, which has made it hard to bark out instructions.

"I can't really help my defense right now," he said.

Selanne set up the Finns' second goal by corralling a loose puck and putting a shot on net from the left circle in the 10th minute of the second period. Nabokov made the stop, but forward Saku Koivu pounced on the rebound. He sent the puck to defenseman Toni Lydman, who scored with a high shot to Nabokov's glove side.

Less than five minutes later, Koivu scored a power-play goal, assisted by Timonen and Selanne. The 31-year-old Koivu has been centering Selanne and Jere Lehtinen on the Finns' top line for several years. They led the Finns to a bronze medal in the 1998 Nagano Games and the silver medal in the 2004 World Cup.

"I think it helps that we have played so long together," Selanne said. "We have great chemistry. We have everything that a great team needs."

Russia's wunderkind forward Alexander Ovechkin, who is in his rookie season with the Washington Capitals and is drawing comparisons to Selanne and his 76-goal debut with Winnipeg in 1992-93, created some excellent scoring chances.

In the 14th minute of the first period, the 20-year-old Ovechkin skated toward Niittymaki. With the flick of his wrist, he maneuvered the puck around defenseman Aki-Petteri Berg and fired a backhand shot that Niittymaki coolly stopped.